Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, or other services. These wireless networks may be multiple-access networks capable of supporting multiple users by sharing the available network resources. Examples of such multiple-access networks include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) networks, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) networks, and Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks.
A wireless communication network may include a number of base stations that can support communication for a number of mobile entities, sometimes referred to as user equipments (UEs). A UE may communicate with a base station via the downlink and uplink. The downlink (or forward link) refers to the communication link from the base station to the UE, and the uplink (or reverse link) refers to the communication link from the UE to the base station.
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) represents a major advance in cellular technology as an evolution of Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). The LTE physical layer (PHY) provides a highly efficient way to convey both data and control information between base stations, such as an evolved Node Bs (eNBs), and mobile entities, such as UEs. In prior applications, a method for facilitating high bandwidth communication for multimedia has been single frequency network (SFN) operation. SFNs utilize radio transmitters, such as, for example, eNBs, to communicate with subscriber UEs.
As demand and consumption of wireless services has increased, wireless communications systems have evolved to include advanced features in the radio link between base stations (e.g., eNBs) and subscriber stations (e.g., UEs). Advanced features may include, for example, Carrier Aggregation (CA) and Coordinated Multipoint Transmission (CoMP). A wireless network may determine whether to employ certain features, for example, CA, to communicate with a specific UE based on the reported capability of the UE. For example, the network may support advanced features for UEs that are capable (e.g., posses the required hardware, firmware, and/or software) of using the advanced features, while supporting wireless service without the advanced features for UEs that are not capable of using the advanced features.